SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

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Nan6b
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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#21

Post: # 13368Unread post Nan6b
Mon Mar 09, 2020 10:57 pm

Do you make your own hot dogs? Or do you can the store bought ones (if so, why?)?

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SQWIB
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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#22

Post: # 13379Unread post SQWIB
Tue Mar 10, 2020 7:01 am

[mention]MissS[/mention]

Yes the garage is heated but I have been trying to keep it @ 70°F because of the Bok Choy and lettuce. Yes I use a heat mat and dome till germination. Heat mat is set at 80°F, If I get one pop in a seed tray, I move that tray to a heat mat without a dome, after a few more seeds pop I move off of the mat, from Right to Left



[mention]GoDawgs[/mention]

Me too, I'm going to try and do watermelon on it, the watermelon will be planted behind the other plants, I'm also going to use as an extension for my butternut squash if it goes wild.



[mention]Nan6b[/mention]

No I do not make my own hot dogs but wish I did, I had some homemade venison, cheddar, jalapeno dogs quite a few years back that were out of this world.

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OK onto the "Why". I don't have a definitive answer to this but rather multiple thoughts as to why I am trying this.

This all started when I made and canned my Sausage and peppers. I thought that worked out real well and my family and my parents are still eating them one year and 7 months later, not a bad deal for one day of cooking.

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So I started thinking about doing Kielbasa and Sauerkraut which segued into hot dogs...minor detour.
Anyhow I wanted to try a few experiments, like how well do these things actually can, do they explode, taste nasty, turn to mush etc...
I have a test running now with a bit of BBQ sauce, if the dogs taste like dogs and not a burnt mess after they are canned, I will be trying another test.
This will be for sauteed onions and BBQ sauce, like I said in an earlier post I am trying to duplicate the best dogs I have ever eaten which were from a street vendor when I was working in the city in my very early twenties.
I guess I can always do the onions and BBQ sauce separate.
I will also be doing my Kielbasa when the sauerkraut is done fermenting.

OK now onto some other reasons I decided to can dogs.
  • To save freezer space as I always have a full 10 cubic foot freezer, full refrigerator freezer upstairs and a full refrigerator freezer in the garage. I just found a pack of 3 year old hot dogs in the freezer but they still look good. I will still vacuum seal and freeze hot dogs.
  • For may parents as they never have freezer space.
  • Longevity
  • Can be taken anywhere and no refrigeration needed, like a park. You don't even need to reheat them, just eat out of the jar.
    Typical store bought hot dogs are already cooked, however they should be reheated to avoid listeria, but these don't need to be reheated.
  • Can buy in bulk when on sale and can, not that these were on sale.
  • For fun because I like to play.
Last edited by SQWIB on Tue Mar 10, 2020 7:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#23

Post: # 13380Unread post SQWIB
Tue Mar 10, 2020 7:03 am

Whwoz wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2020 10:53 am Looking good Sqwibb, nice mix of plants there
Thank you Kindly

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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#24

Post: # 14857Unread post SQWIB
Tue Mar 24, 2020 11:12 am

March 9th, pm 2020

The weather was really nice so I stopped at Home depot and picked up some peat moss, Black Kow, 10-10-10 and some marigold seeds. UI started work on the ponds, redoing the electrical cords and turning on the pumps, I have a bad pump that needs replacing. Sprinkled a tiny bit of 10-10-10 around the shrubs, trees and flowers.


Got 4 of my Planters/Raised beds ready for planting.

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March 10th, pm 2020

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March 11th, 2020

Ran out during work and picked up some Black Kow and Pine Bark Fines from lowes for my Grow Bags and Planters. After work, I installed the new pond pump and fixed the LED tape lights, have you ever tried to solder LED tape Lights, what a nightmare.

Planted a couple of my Bok Choy "Cut and Regrow" plants, a Purple Bok Choy, and a few Shanghai Bok Choy in the Koi Pond planter. Planted some Waltham Broccoli in the new "Root Bed", this bed was originally built for Radish and Beets, I have had no luck with Beets.

Sowed some Scarlet Runner Beans and De grace Snow Peas along the trellis in the Hugelkultur beds. Dumped the rest of my Aji Pineapple seeds into the seed trays, germination rate has been horrible. I also found some old Datil Seeds from 2016 or 2017 that I am trying to grow out for seeds.

I had extremely poor germination rate on my old (2017) Marigold seeds but pulled a dead plant from the hill and planted those seeds last week and had quite a few sprout.



I took the Suzhou Baby Bok Choy outside.

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March 12th, 2020


Started up the back pond. Pulled out my grow bags and decided which to use, I forget I had this many. I'll probably use the 10 gallon bag for eggplant and a Zucchini and maybe a couple 7 gallon pots for some peppers, 2 in each pot.

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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#25

Post: # 14858Unread post SQWIB
Tue Mar 24, 2020 11:29 am

March 19th, 2020

Got some staining done this weekend, Sam and her boyfriend helped out a lot.
Gave up on my Citrus trees and put them outside.
Still harvesting a good bit of lettuce.

Had some issues with the Koi Pond leaking, after several days I found the leak in the lower veggie filter, so I had to drain it a bit and let it dry out then cleaned it up and reapplied some silicone.
I decided to completely redo the two veggie filters.
I changed the upper veggie filter to an up-flow, similar to the lower veggie filter, I will be adding some Bio-Balls and MORE Matala filter pads in an effort to increase biological filtration.

I'm having issues with my hose that feeds the irrigation, I can hear the water running when the hose is charged and the irrigation is off, there must be a leak somewhere in the hose. The hose is buried underground and inspecting it would be impossible. I have an above ground line that I will be using.

Working on my Back Pond pump/filters for easier access to cleaning. I installed a clean-out hose to each of the filters with a "Y" adapter, this will be used to clean the filters and the waste will be used in the gardens.

Planted 20 Chandler strawberry plants on the 18th and Romaine and Butternut Crunch Lettuce on the 14th but forgot about the seeds being in the bed when I was working on the pond and was dumping 5 gallon buckets of water right on top of them, oops!


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Last edited by SQWIB on Tue Mar 24, 2020 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#26

Post: # 14862Unread post MissS
Tue Mar 24, 2020 11:58 am

Everything looks great. I wish you a great growing season. It's also nice to know that you are all stocked up and ready for your 2 week quarantine.
~ Patti ~

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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#27

Post: # 14863Unread post SQWIB
Tue Mar 24, 2020 12:08 pm

[mention]MissS[/mention]

Lol, I like how you say "ready for your 2 week quarantine" like I'm definitely going to get the virus. I hope not.
Good luck on your growing season as well and thank you.

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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#28

Post: # 14878Unread post Nan6b
Tue Mar 24, 2020 4:00 pm

Naw, Squib, she's referring to the Governor's Stay-At-Home order that went into effect yesterday.

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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#29

Post: # 14889Unread post SQWIB
Tue Mar 24, 2020 6:37 pm

Believe it it not, Our company falls under "essential" , we are a printing company that print labels primarily to the food industry.
The FDA requires Labeling on most foods. Food can't go on the shelves without proper labeling.
We can't keep up, our work load has almost tripled.

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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#30

Post: # 15258Unread post GoDawgs
Sat Mar 28, 2020 9:05 am

That's interesting. You never think about the industries that support other industries. Labeling food is definitely important.

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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#31

Post: # 15605Unread post SQWIB
Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:24 am

March 24th, 2020

I got some work done on the back hill laying pavers cleaning up and staining the retaining wall. I installed a new pressure regulator on the feed line to the beds, I went with a slightly higher PSI regulator. Swapped out the hose as the other hose is leaking.

I fertilized the potted plants with the following mix, just eyeballed the mix, oops forgot Epsom salts, I'll add that next time I fertilize.
  • Coffee grounds
  • 10-10-10
  • Garden Lime
  • Peat Moss
  • Black Kow
  • Perlite
  • Pine Bark Fines

Mixed up some potting mix for the Aquaponics Small Veggie filter.
  • Garden Lime
  • Peat Moss
  • Black Kow
  • Perlite
  • Pine Bark Fines

I Canned my sauerkraut and Laura made an awesome, Butternut Squash Pie, amazing is the only way I can describe it!

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Still working on the ponds as well.

A few years back my mom gave us a Koi that outgrew her smallish pond, he is not doing good, my daughter has been working with him every day but it don't look good.

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I had a leak in one of my feed lines that feed the main pond from the larger veggie filter and repaired that, after that had cured (24 hours), I decided to remove everything, clean out the filters, and media (scrubbie pads) and redo the filter with additional Matala filter pads for my aquaponics plants. This stuff is very rigid and works great for supporting grow bags or heavy pots.

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After I had the large veggie filter squared away, I done a 20% water change to the main pond and fertilized the pond plants (Lilies) with some Jobes spikes, I don't add fertilizer to the Irises.

The smaller upper veggie was redone also, first thing was to remove all of the rock and pea gravel then I put on a fresh coat of stain. The filter was changed to an up-flow filter design, I added the 300 bio-balls and topped with green Matala filter pads, it's much lighter now, lol.

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For the back pond I moved the filter to be a bit more accessible and plumbed the backwash lines both together with a clean-out hose using a brass "T", I'll use this water from the clean-out to water my plants.

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Still eating lettuce from the indoor grow but we are eating it quicker than we can grow it, just wish I had a little more space.

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Everything is finally budding with the exception of my grape vines.

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greenthumbomaha
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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#32

Post: # 61256Unread post greenthumbomaha
Sat Jan 22, 2022 11:42 pm

Resurrecting this amazing thread because aji pineapple came up in a search. I'm looking for pepper suggestions that add flavor other than chilli dishes and are not too hot.

Was there a recipe using this pepper that I might have missed? Sauce, seasoning , fried? How would it be used?

- Lisa

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Re: SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

#33

Post: # 61415Unread post MissS
Mon Jan 24, 2022 8:24 pm

It's so nice to see some signs of spring!

Your Koi looks like he has internal parasites which sometimes happens with outdoor fish. Try a small dose of Dylox to treat him with.
~ Patti ~

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